Scott Bell (creator of soon-to-come doc UltimateBeat) saw the decision as a big win for AP/UB stakeholders. As Bell notes, this dismissal should clear the way for the (now-likely-near-to-worthless?) assets of UB and AP to be put on the government’s auction block:

The claim of Avoine is hereby dismissed with prejudice… Big event for UB/AP folks, now they can learn how much the site is worth.

In a 2012 post, Haley Hintze characterized Avoine as a company that “has been alleged to be the true hiding spot of the Americans who really controlled AP in the years following its acquisition of UltimateBet and its flight from America’s UIGEA.”

From and after October 2006 – when Avoine’s predecessor, SGS, divested itself of Absolute Entertainment – and continuing to the present, Avoine has not been the operator of the Absolute Poker website, but has been in the business solely of licensing or otherwise attempting to monetize the value of its intellectual property – i.e., the AP Assets.

It’s not clear if the settlement between the DoJ and Avoine is a precursor to a larger deal involving other UB / AP principals.